Rideau Canal World Heritage Site

Official name

Rideau Canal | UNESCO

Country

Canada | Map

Continent

North America

Location

Province of Ontario
44.9943° Lat, -75.7651° Lon | Map

Code

1221

Time Zone

America/Toronto (EST, -0500)

Current Time

Category

Cultural

Description

Inscribed 2007. The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario, was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control of the region. The site, one of the first canals to be designed specifically for steam-powered vessels, also features an ensemble of fortifications. It is the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America, demonstrating the use of this European technology on a large scale. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.